SOCIETY

Italy tops Europe in effective cancer treatment

Italy tops the list of European countries in effective cancer treatment, the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM) said Friday on the opening day of its 17th national congress, with 3,000 in attendance.

The survival rate has grown 17% for men and 10% for women over the past 17 years, putting Italy at the top in Europe.

Immuno-oncology, or medicine that uses the body`s immune system to fight cancer, has shown to significantly improve long-term survival rates in melanoma patients and is showing good results in combating other potentially fatal cancers such as lung and kidney cancer.

AIOM President Carmine Pinto said that a majority of Italians are unaware of these encouraging statistics.

Forty-one percent think effective therapies don't exist, while 54% still think that cancer is an incurable disease, and 72% have never read anything about immuno-oncology, he said.